Readers sound off on congestion pricing, cyber war and and Aziz Ansari

An anti-congestion-pricing pileup

Bronx: The stupidity, incompetence and most of all arrogance of our elected officials in this city and state never ceases to amaze me. The latest fiasco is this congestion pricing scam.

First of all, any plan that does not include trucks making deliveries from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. only, and limiting the amount of private car services like Lyft and Uber, is bound to fail. A recent study shows there are 45,000 more of these cars roaming the streets now than just a few years ago. Many are just driving around waiting to get a fare. They want more people to use public transportation, which is a good idea, but our system now is overcrowded and dysfunctional.

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And none of this money would go to fixing roads — so once again, the driving public subsidizes the mass transit users, despite many of the city roads looking like lunar landscapes.

These politicians need to have some backbone and tell the people who use mass transit that compared to the rest of the country, and other countries, they have a great deal. Many places like London charge different prices according to the distance traveled. Here, you can ride from Inwood in Manhattan to the Rockaways for $2.75, which is a great deal.

Thankfully, I only have six years until I retire, at which time on day one I will have the moving van packing up my stuff and moving to a state that does not rip you off left and right. Pete Morrissey

Manhattan: Congestion pricing is just another punitive tax placed on drivers, and has nothing to do with easing congestion. The George Washington Bridge is the most congested when the highest tolls are in effect. Drivers drive when they have to get to work, and to visit and spend money when they come to Manhattan. There is nothing to prove that these people will now choose alternative modes of transportation. This ill-advised initiative penalizes businesses below 60th St. If easing congestion is really the intention, then hire more traffic agents to keep traffic flowing. Tracy Nieporent Partner & director of marketing, Myriad Restaurant Group

Chickens coming home

Bronx: How many New Yorkers remember when then-Gov. Pataki and then-Speaker Sheldon Silver worked together to eliminate the commuter tax? That required people who worked but did not live in the city to pay a 0.5% tax. Eliminating that tax caused the city to lose between $500 and $800 million dollars a year. Most of that money was to be used to fund MTA capital projects. Look at the crumbling MTA infrastructure now. I always knew such a shortsighted cheap political trick would come back to haunt us. I chuckle at attempts to reinstate some form of funding under different names. At present, congestion pricing. Good luck with that, Gov. Cuomo. Fred Griffith

A bridge to nowhere

Rego Park: Without carrots to encourage a behavior change, congestion pricing is merely a stick to beat money out of those with no real transportation alternatives to fund the MTA, the agency that squanders billions on glitzy Manhattan stations but fails to develop options for outer-borough residents. Arthur L. Miller

Death by a thousand tolls

Forest Hills: Money incoming: MetroCards (New York is always bragging about how many millions of tourists we get); LIRR monthly tickets; advertising in every subway and LIRR car, in every station and in and on every bus; taxes paid by businesses; $1 for every new MetroCard. Money wasted: executive salaries (they don't even take mass transit); work on signals, switches and tracks for repairs. Yet daily there are delays because of signal, switch and track problems. Congestion pricing is an insult to the people who work in this city and do business here. Enough is enough! Sherri Rosen

Get real, now

Brooklyn: Until the city meets with professional drivers for recommendations on how to make things better, small businesses like mine will suffer. My service company does 20% less work than 10 years ago due to the continuous traffic congestion and removal of parking spaces. And now the state wants me to pay a congestion fee? When you tack a fee onto commercial vehicles, the consumer ends up paying for it. Traffic congestion also pushes up the cost of everything you buy. Gregory Ahl Ahl Tone communications, Inc.

All hail Uber

Brooklyn: Yellow taxi medallion owners Nino Hervias and Gloria Guerra's Op-Ed about Uber ("Restrict Uber, exempt taxis," Jan. 18) reminded me of two months ago. My wife and I left the VA hospital emergency room around 4 a.m. after an asthma attack and hailed a yellow taxi to bring us home to Brooklyn. I watched as the driver turned his key and acted like his car had broken down within a half a block. I thank God for Uber and every other car company that has freed us from corrupt disingenuous yellow taxis, especially having to hail a taxi while black. I cringe at the thought of them regaining a monopoly of discrimination against the outer boroughs and people of color. Michael Brown

Left behind

Bronx: When people use terms like "left," "right" or whatever without discussing issues, I find their arguments meaningless. So to Voicer William Hurst, what do you consider far-left about the Daily News? Was it when they complained that the real-money pay cut contracts Mayor de Blasio gave to city workers were too generous? Was it when they did a hatchet job on Sen. Bernie Sanders when he was running for President? Was it their editorials supporting nuclear power plants and fracking? I didn't know these were far-left positions. Richard Warren

Go green, Chuck

Manhattan: As the nation's most powerful Democrat, Sen. Chuck Schumer must forcefully oppose drastic budget cuts proposed for the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA protects the safety of our water and air, enforces toxic waste cleanup and pursues environmental justice. The health of our children, our neighbors and the New York community are at the mercy of EPA's ability and desire to be proactive in preventing environmental deterioration and preserving past gains. Because of its past efforts, we can fish in the Hudson, see buildings on the other side of the highway, and not face "bad air" days throughout the summer. The EPA simply cannot continue this vital work without the money to fund it. Ann H. Logan Food & Water Watch

Department of Bad Ideas

Bronx: Officials at the Pentagon have sent to the White House a plan for using nuclear weapons in the face of a devastating cyber-attack. This is total insanity. First, people capable of crippling our infrastructure via a cyber-attack are very likely capable of completely covering their tracks. Is the Pentagon so sure that the military will be able to pinpoint exactly who the perpetrators are? I doubt it. Second, what is the Pentagon doing right now to perfect cyber security in the U.S.? We have not gotten an iota of information about any steps in that direction, let alone what is needed: a huge effort similar to the Manhattan Project, dedicated to cyber security. Miriam Levine Helbok

The wall in Trump’s mind

Manhattan: I'm wondering why President Trump is so determined to spend billions on a big fat wall to hold off Mexicans when the real threats to our national security are the cyber spies and hackers, mostly Russians, who have shown such proficiency in manipulating our elections — and any other technology they can penetrate. Also, it doesn't help our national security to taunt a wacko nuke-waving dictator, especially when the President seems to yearn for an excuse to start a war. If national security were really important to Trump, he'd stop tweeting insults about foreign leaders, intensify efforts to strengthen our cyber-security network, and switch the multibillion-dollar funding for the wall to improvements in our healthcare and education systems, so that American citizens will be prepared for the challenges ahead. But of course he won't do any of those things. Carol Robinson

He really, really likes it

Brooklyn: Readers should know that they can buy a lot of good things from Target. For example, you can buy up to 20 boxes of Chex wheat cereal at a time for only $50. It's a lot cheaper and a lot more convenient than shopping in a local store. Shlomo Klein

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Noted

Olmsted Falls, Ohio: Aziz Ansari is the ugliest person I have ever seen. I do not like him or his views. He had me removed from Twitter because I told him his lips were too big. He has blocked me from his Facebook account too. I still think he is so ugly that he should not be famous in any way. Helene Lazar